New Project

[NathanM06]

Hi, I am soon going to be building a pond in my backyard, the pond will house Koi and Goldfish, as well as European Pond Turtles. I am a turtle person myself, but I'd like to incorporate aquaponics into the system.

I I plan on keeping the pH around neutral, it seems best for the species I plan to stock the pond with. With that being said, what media would be best to keep the pH about neutral? I stress a lot over water chemistry, so I want it to be perfect.

I plan on using both the fill-and-drain style beds, as well as the float bed style, but I'm open to suggestions for different or additional designs, I plan on building everything so nothing commercial please. The water will go through a pre-filter for mechanical purposes, and then following the beds will go through regular filters (mechanical and biological) before being pumped back to the pond. This may be a stupid question, but will the aquaponics still be functional if I have all that filtration working alongside it? I also plan on treating the water with supplemental bacteria each week, and having live plants in the water which will obviously do a little bit of filtration.

I also wanted to incorporate Apple snails, and worms into the system. If anyone has any tips as to how to do so, they would be appreciated. Additionally, a list of good things to grow would be nice, I don't plan on feeding my family extensively, only the turtles/tortoises. Any random tips would be great, I'm new to this and I want to ensure the health of my animals as well as grow some stuff. If anyone has any input on the connection of the system to the pond, that would be great, I have an idea but additional insight is always good. Thanks.

Nathan

[jvision]

There are a few things you can use to buffer the pH a bit - crushed coral/oyster shell, aragonite, limestone, etc. Depending on your source water, you may not need to add anything for a bit (the tap water in my area is typically 7.6-7.8); but, eventually the biological processes will lower your pH w/o any additives. I don't see a problem with any of your ideas, and you could grow pretty much anything you want that will grow in your area. Since you want to feed your turtles/tortoises, grow what they like - leafy greens do well in aquaponics systems.

[Deuem]

How large will the pond and the Grow Beds be?